Gullfoss

Today we pretty much did the golden ring, which is a long day trip from Reykjavik, which meant it was crowded with busses!

The first stop today was Gullfoss, a huge waterfall.  Theresa liked today’s better than either of yesterday’s, but Bill thought yesterday’s were nicer, but certainly not as powerful as today’s.  You can decide!

Look how the mist bounces back up the hill.

Some of the rocks were ...not quite level.

Proof I was there!  The water sort of hits the channel from the side.

"Geysir" national park.

Next we headed to a park full of geysers.  But here they call one of them “geysir” and that is the source of our name for such things.  

We stood patiently waiting for the big show...only to have another guide walk by telling us "You're wasting your time...the geyser is down here..."

We walked there, and a large crowd was waiting.  Theresa got the good pix of the first eruption.  But there was a second and Bill got those.

A hot hole.

A boiling hole!!  But the wrong one.

Oooh!!

Ahhh!

Ohhh!!

Round 2!

The plume dwarfs the people.

A steamy stinky hole!

The one the only, the original "Geysir" in the background.

Uh, if that's in the men's room...something is wrong!

A green house full of tomato plants.

We then headed to a green house.  They grow a lot of things, but mostly tomatoes.  They started with tomatoes in the 1990s, and grew to like 17-19 green houses and now provide some 40% of the tomatoes in Iceland.  We got a nice introduction by an employee with inordinate exuberance for the company history.  And bees.  They use a lot of bees to pollenate the tomatoes. 

The dining was set up in the green house, and, well, they served tomato soup.  It was actually pretty good for simply tomato soup.  Also there was a mountain of fresh bread.  And they had sour cream (in case the soup was too spicy…a 2 out of 10, but for tomato soup, that’s something!), and a basil plant, with scissors where we could cut our own basil leaves off.  They seem to be pushing the ‘fresh’ theme!  Bill got a “tomato beer” which was better than it sounds, worth trying, but not worth a second.

That's a LOT of bread!!

The tomatoes are strangely uniform!

Bees bees bees!!

Tomato soup and tomato beer, and basil.

Icelandic horses.

After lunch we visited a horse…place.  I’m not sure what exactly to call it.  They did a little show about Icelandic horses, and showed their various gaits.  Then we got to “pet” them.  And try not to get bitten!!

I'm not sure why they rode with beer,
but they dumped it out at the end.  What a travesty!!  (TG Note - It was to show how smooth the Icelandic horses' Tolt gait is)

At full size, Icelandic horses are not very big!!  Bill is taller! 

Willllllberrr!!!

The fissure in the North American tectonic plate.

We headed to the … tectonic plates?  It was near the edge of the North American plate, but not where it joined the Eurasia plate.  I guess there is an Icelandic plate stuck in there.  But this is the highest part of the mid-atlantic ridge (obviously since most of it is below the ocean!).  The trail went along a fissure, near the edge but not between.  Anyway, the fissure/crack was pretty cool (cold and also neat). 

Check out the texture of this old lava!

Look!!  It's a ... a...  Metroburger?
McDonalds pulled out of Iceland about a decade ago.

"Voyage to the Sun"

We headed back to Reykjavik, and made a stop by the Voyage to the Sun sculpture (a tribute to those explorers who helped discover the “new world”), and then stopped at the iconic church.  The church is made from concrete and meant to look like the basalt stones found around the country.  It was…well it’s concrete so it was ugly.  Sorry.  But…  It was also cold and closed to prepare for an upcoming event... so we spent minimal time and all wanted to get to the hotel.

Harpa Concert Hall...it's Reykjavik's big fancy building.

Hallgrimskirkja

We could not go inside since they were preparing for the 
inauguration of the next bishop of Iceland in 3 days.

A statue of Leif Eriksson.

Who chose this bed arrangement?!?  :-(

Finally in the hotel, the last one of “not our choosing”.  Theresa found that we could ask for mattress pads to make the beds more soft, so she asked for a late checkout and the pads.  We are sworn to not tell ANYONE that they gave us a 12:30 check out, so I can’t tell you that.

"Hraun" is Icelandic for lava.

We had a reception as sort of a goodbye event.  There was a drink and our guide gave us some gifts.

Dinner.

We were “on our own” for dinner, but we went with Mike and MaryAnne and another couple we got to know a bit on the trip (we didn’t get their permission so we’ll call them…uh, Tad and Sheryl).  The six of us headed to the food court from so many days ago, and hit the pizza place.  Theresa and I got the “Umberto” which had pepperoni, dates, mascarpone, and basil.  I judged it was the best looking of the three pizzas.  The six of us had a great time, laughing and just enjoying the waning hours of our trip.  But we are looking forward to a light and late morning tomorrow!!